Life lessons learnt and shared with my niece, Lottie Mia

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#98 There’s always the opportunity to start again

“It’s like breathing in, we can do it again and again, we just have to let ourselves.”

n almost any situation, we can always start again.

I also believe this is linked to not setting ourselves up to fail. If I wake up and say ‘I’m going to write 1000 words of my book this morning,’ then a load of emails come in, I won’t end up writing, lunchtime will arrive and I’ll end up feeling as though I failed myself. But if I set myself an unmeasured goal of ‘I’m going to write this morning,’ then any writing I do is greater than the amount I don’t do, right? So I have achieved. And then I can always start again and carry on the next day.

It’s the same with almost everything in life, just because you make a decision at one point, it doesn’t mean you have to stick to it forever. In fact, I have a hunch that those living with the knowledge that they can always start over again, may be happier than those that don’t, because they’re more likely to listen to themselves and meet their needs.

So, if you hit thirty and realise that the law degree you did at eighteen no longer serves you and you want to retrain as a marine biologist – make it happen. Start again. It’s never too late. Or you get to the end of a book and think ‘meh, this is average and could be better’, start again (you can still copy and paste bits from the first one), or if you’re trying to give up chocolate and you cave. It’s OKAY! We’re all human. Choose your response, and rather than berate yourself for failing, acknowledge that trying was a very good start, and you can start again at any given moment (you don’t have to wait for a certain time or date, there is no moment as good as this one.)

Each day has a new start, a new chance for you to be brilliant, even more brilliant than you ever were before! And each day holds a hundred-thousand moments, probably more. Each one one of those is a new chance to start over, to make a change. You can transform things with a single thought. Take risks, so what if you fail? So much better to try and fail than to never know what could have been. Nothing is fixed or unchangeable, seize anyone of those hundred-thousand moments to start over, it’s very much allowed!

Also, this doesn’t mean don’t follow through with things, that’s important too. It’s about sensing when is a good time to let go and start over, and to accept that it’s fine!